1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of overcoming the problem of water seeping into the basement of a dwelling or other structure, and, more particularly, to a basement waterproofing system which includes procedures for treating hollow portions of the basement wall and for treating the footer drainage tile system which surrounds the basement wall footer.
2. Prior Art
Basement walls of many dwellings and other structures are formed from hollow tiles and/or hollow blocks laid atop a poured concrete footer. The hollow tiles and/or blocks provide hollow passages extending in planes substantially parallel to the planes of the inner and outer surfaces of the basement walls. A problem with basement wall constructions of this type is that, when water seeps through a crack in the outer surface of the wall and into these hollow passages, it oftentimes travels long distances within the wall before emerging into the basement through a crack formed in the inner wall surface. When this problem occurs, the location at which water emerges into the basement may give very little clue as to the location of the outer wall crack, and locating the outer wall crack requiring repair may be quite difficult. Moreover, efforts made to close the interior wall crack are seldom successful in preventing seepage into the basement because water which has entered the hollow passages of the wall will tend to travel for whatever distance is required to find another interior wall crack through which it may seep into the basement.
A further problem found with many existing dwelling structures is that the footer drainage tile system provided around the perimeter of the concrete footer is often clogged. Unless the problem of the clogged drain tile is treated, such efforts as may be made to repair cracks in the basement wall are oftentimes found to be of little avail. Ground water will tend to accumulate within the vicinity of the clogged tile and may rise to a level above the basement floor, causing the wall to be saturated with resulting seepage into the basement.
While methods have been developed for treating outer surfaces of basement walls to inhibit water seepage into the walls, most efforts of this sort have been found to achieve relatively unreliable results unless coordinated with efforts to assure the proper operation of the footer drainage tile system. The most accepted and most reliable approach which has been found for waterproofing basement walls of existing structures has required excavation around the entire perimeter of the basement wall to expose not only the complete outer surface of the basement wall but also the tiles of the footer drainage tile system whereby the complete outer surface of the basement wall can be waterproofed and whereby the footer drainage tile system can be cleaned out and its proper operation assured.
A problem with the described accepted system is that it is oftentimes quite expensive to carry out. Moreover, in many instances, the excavation which must be done alongside the entire perimeter of the basement wall requires the removal, replacement and/or destruction of bushes, trees and other landscape improvements. While shortcuts to this approach of complete perimetrical excavation have been proposed, in most instances these shortcuts have been found to be deficient in that, while they may provide for certain treatment of the basement wall to prevent seepage therethrough, they do not ordinarily involve any treatment of the footer drainage tile system.